Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010
Music store offers free lessons to Girl Scouts
Miranda Wycoff, Journal Staff
Courtesy photo
Betty Meyer, far back, of Meyer Music, teaches a class of Girl Scouts beginning piano. Meyer has been volunteering her time to teach Girl Scouts each summer for nearly 40 years. She estimates 5,000 scouts have gone through her program.
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closeFor almost 40 years Girl Scouts from Blue Springs and Grain Valley have been flocking to Meyer Music, 1512 U.S. 40, Blue Springs.
Betty Meyer, co-owner of the music store, has been volunteering her time to teach piano classes to Girl Scouts.
On Tuesday, the 2010 class of almost 40 girls culminated their six weeks of hard work with a recital for their parents and grandparents.
Meyer said the girls played all the songs they’ve learned throughout the course – including “Ode to Joy,” “Jingle Bells,” “Mary had a Little Lamb” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” – as a group and then each girl played their favorite song individually.
“Usually the favorite is always ‘Ode to Joy,’” Meyer said. “I don’t know why it always works out that way but I think its because I tell them they can play that at weddings and they like that.”
Meyer began teaching the classes each summer when her daughter, Julie Meyer Anwander, was a Girl Scout.
“When Julie was a Girl Scout a lot of the parents did overnights and camps, but I was working and had to be at the store,” Meyer said. “So the classes were my contribution to the troop. This is something they could use their whole life.”
When the program first began, Meyer taught lessons for 10 weeks, but she’s shortened it to six to better accommodate the busy lives of today’s children.
“Back when we first started Blue Springs didn’t even have a pool,” Meyer said. “So these classes were a big event.”
But if sheer numbers are any example, the classes are still a big event. Meyer accepts the first 40 Girl Scouts who sign up for the classes each year and she estimates more than 5,000 students have gone through the program.
She’s even had mothers and daughters go through the same program. Today, her granddaughter Meagan Anwander helps with the classes – extending the program through three generations.
Additionally, another assistant, Hannah Hyer is the daughter of Girl Scout who completed the program in 1975 – Rhonda Schoer.
“Its really rewarding,” Meyer said. “Grown ladies who have been through this program stop me in the grocery store and remember the classes.”
But she said the best part of doing the free Girl Scout lessons each year is seeing how much the students enjoy it.
“They really like it,” she said. “They love to come, love the songs and love to practice.
“I’ve even had girls ask to do it a second time.”
For more information, contact Meyer Music at www.meyermusic.com or call 816-228-5656
To reach Journal reporter Miranda Wycoff, call 816-282-7017 or e-mail mwycoff@bluespringsjournal.com
